Splash. We're looking at She-Hulk through a hole in a brick wall. She is in the process of bricking up the wall. Just in case anyone was wondering, the fourth wall will remain intact for this run.

What I've Got in Mind...

Although I intend to keep the door closed on fourth-wall comedy, I'm not closing the door on humor altogether. The Sensational She-Hulk's fans have come to expect a mix of comedy and adventure. My plans for the book are simple: More comedy and more adventure. I see the She-Hulk as a hip, funny, confident, Californian transplanted to New York. She turns heads, and her very presence causes a scene but she doesn't care, she knows who she is and she likes it. She's sort of a 6'7" Sandra Bernhard, only green and beautiful. She's good natured, with dryly, wise-cracking wit but she's also truly heroic and genuinely concerned for the welfare of others. I intend to do this book in the same style as the Ceremony limited series but with a more overtly comedic tone (more toward the feel of my original, pre-Byrned plot). In Ceremony, the She-Hulk was concerned with answering some fundamental questions about her place in society. In the series, she's answered those questions and is as self-assured and outgoing as she ever was. Some of the humor in the book will come from the Molly Doddish, "adventures of a-single-woman-in-New York," feel of her personal life. As an obviously unusual, fiercely independent woman, she's a perfect character to explore this sort of human comedy. And as an unbelievably strong, resourceful and daring super heroine, she's also a perfect character to deliver the kind of (you should pardon the expression) Hoo-Ha action that Marvel does best. I'd like to restore to the She-Hulk's adventures the kind of dramatic tension that you can have when physical confrontations aren't portrayed as slapstick. This isn't to say that the action in this book won't be fun anymore. It will be. But fun in the tradition of the early Lee Ditko Spider-Man, with colorful, dangerous villains, battling quick-witted, fast-quipping heroes. I'm shooting for the best of both worlds here. I want to retain the light-hearted fun that people expect from the book but I also want the reader to have the feeling that the stories "count" as real occurrences in the Marvel Universe. I want the reader to "believe" that Jennifer Walters, her friends and her foes are all real people.

The changeover in creative teams will give us an opportunity to get some people to take another look at the title. I suggest that the best way to do this is to begin our run on the book with a four-part "epic" that will pit She-Hulk against major Marvel villains. I will also introduce the book's continuing cast and re-affirm the She-Hulk's status as a mainstream Marvel heroine.

Part one:

"Unrequited, So Far"

After the prologue I described earlier, She-Hulk will return home to discover Cliff, (a handsome, older man who evokes Hemingway) sitting on her stoop. He's in trouble and needs to crash at her place. Out of the goodness of her heart, She-Hulk agrees, but she can't help remembering that years ago, back before she became the She-Hulk, when she was just human D.A. Jennifer Walters, she had an unrequited crush on this handsome, persuasive man. Seeing him here before her, she realizes that those feelings haven't gone away. Once inside, Cliff tells her that he's on the trail of a manuscript that will reveal the burial place of an alien artifact. He's not the only person looking for it, though and his competition seems to be willing to do anything to get to it first. He thinks there've been attempts on his life, although he admits, he may be being paranoid. He does know that his home has been robbed, as well as his safety deposit box (and no one else's) at his bank. He needs her help. She-Hulk agrees. There's definitely an attraction building between them. But before it goes anywhere, the She-Hulk's apartment becomes the site of a battle between She-Hulk and the Rhino, who crashes in demanding that Cliff give him, "da papers". Although stronger than She-Hulk, the Rhino is also much dumber. She defeats him, protecting her friend's life at the cost of her apartment (actually, Janet Van Dyne's, right?).

Part two:

"Artifact and Artifice"

She-Hulk has to find a new apartment. Her landlord (Janet van Dyne) regretfully threw her out because of the damage that the fight from last issue caused to her building. This will allow us to play She-Hulk's apartment search for comic effect. Eventually, she will end up in a brand new East Village apartment . Meanwhile, Cliff's search continues. He has discovered where the manuscript containing the location of the mysterious artifact is hidden. However, he doesn't know he's being watched by the new, more dangerous Trapster. And when he and She-Hulk go to retrieve the manuscript, the Trapster attacks with his array of deadly weapons. The She-Hulk battles him, constantly reminding him, to his great irritation, of his old identity as "Paste Pot Pete". While She-Hulk and Cliff are distracted by the battle, the Trapster's partner, Hydro Man, steals the manuscript. Cliff had to choose between going after the manuscript or going back to help She-Hulk. He chooses to go back and help She-Hulk, distracting the Trapster long enough to give She-Hulk a much needed second wind. The She-Hulk is touched by his sacrifice and the romance grows. She-Hulk comically interrogates the Trapster and finds out who it is that Hydro-Man and the Trapster are working for. It's the Kingpin.

Part three:

"The End of the Quest"

She-Hulk and Cliff have grown very close. She's happy and enjoying this adventure with him. She's gonna do him a little favor. She's going to get the papers back from Kingpin. She confronts the Kingpin and has a wet and wild battle with Hydro Man. She defeats him ("What I wouldn't give for a mop and bucket. Jeesh!"). Kingpin's no fool, he doesn't want to go toe to toe with her. In any case, he doesn't need to. He tells her that he's just read the translation of the manuscript and now that he knows what the artifact really is, he doesn't want it any longer. "You may discover", he tells her, "that he same is true concerning your feelings for Cliff." The Kingpin gives her the manuscript. She-Hulk comes out with it, extremely confused. Cliff reads the manuscript to She-Hulk: The manuscript was written by a Cleric, who tells the story of seeing a light in the sky crash to the ground and finding within the wreckage a wondrous suit of armor. While wearing the armor, the cleric gains great power that he uses to help the settlers nearby, and to build a church. His superiors convince him that the power of the suit is too tempting for men to have, so he has buried the suit in the desert behind the church, secure in the knowledge that by the time this manuscript is found, men will be wise enough to use the suit's power wisely. Cliff wonders aloud just what that power could be. She-Hulk tells Cliff that with an Avengers Quinjet they can easily find out. Shortly, they arrive in New Mexico and She-Hulk realizes that the ancient cleric's church is just outside of the Desert Base testing ground where the Gamma Bomb that created the Hulk (and in turn She-Hulk) was first detonated. The She-Hulk makes a realization, and warns Cliff away from the burial ground. But while she makes a call to the Avengers (in order to get advice on how to deal with the problem she's discovered), Cliff has ignored her warning and unearthed the artifact. By the time She-Hulk has completed her call, Cliff has put the suit on, and already been instructed in its proper use by the suit's extremely user-friendly operating system. She-Hulk is horrified, the reason she told him to stay away from the burial site, is that the entire area is extremely radioactive. She passes a Geiger counter over him. He is massively irradiated. She wants to get him medical attention immediately. He wants revenge on the Kingpin. "He knew this would happen. I'm as good as dead and he killed me. But I'm not going alone." He rockets off.

Part four:

"Cliff's Edge"

The She-Hulk pursues Cliff into Manhattan for an all-out battle that begins shortly after Cliff flies through the wall and into the Kingpin's tower. She-Hulk must protect the city from Cliff's radiation, protect the Kingpin from Cliff's wrath, and defeat Cliff without either him or her being seriously injured. In the course of the battle she discovers that Cliff is far from the innocent he has portrayed himself to be. He knows about the artifact because he worked for the Kingpin. He stole the Kingpin's notes, depending on the She-Hulk to protect him from his wrath. Cliff tries to manipulate her emotionally during the fight, constantly evoking the weaker, less confident Jennifer Walters that he knew years ago. Eventually, she defeats him, making the point that it isn't just her body that's grown stronger in the intervening years. She wasn't "hopelessly in love" with Cliff as he suggested during this adventure, she was indulging herself in an old fantasy. She just liked the guy, she wasn't stupid over him. She gets the badly radiation-poisoned Cliff out of the suit, and disposes of it. A few days later, we see her moving into her new apartment, and establishing some of her new status quo. She's not Jennifer Walters anymore, but she very much likes who she is.

Finally...

I wrote my first proposal for an adventure-comedy book starring the She-Hulk over three years ago, and I still want to do the series as much as ever. I'm not interested in just doing a good job on this title. I'm offering something more, an entertaining book that we can also all be proud of. What do you say I take a shot at it?

-Dwayne McDuffie

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